Coulter

Appeal from a judgment entered in an action brought to obtain a decree of annulment of a contract made in violation of the usury law, and to recover treble damages.

The act known as the usury law was an initiative measure submitted and approved at the general election of November 5, 1918. (Stats. 1919, p. lxxxiii; Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1923 ed., Act 3757.) This act repealed sections 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920 of the Civil Code, all relating to interest. The usury law, after prescribing certain limits or rates of interest that can be charged, and particularly limiting contract interest to not exceeding twelve per cent per annum, provides in section 2 as follows: “Any agreement or contract of any nature in conflict with the provisions of this section shall be null and void as to any agreement or stipulation therein contained to pay interest and no action at law to recover interest in any sum shall be maintained and the debt cannot be declared due until the full period of time it was contracted for has elapsed.”

Section 3 of the act reads in part as follows: “Rights of person paying illegal interest. Every person, . . . who for any loan or forbearance of money, goods or things in…